Safety Tip of the Week

52 Use your mirrors! When it comes to reversing there’s the good, the bad and the ugly! Towing is one of those jobs that really bring out the worst in people’s skills. Some will look over their shoulder, others use their mirrors, whilst others will use a combination of the two. I tend to use mirrors as I believe it affords the best view and once you’ve got the knack of the distances seen in your mirror view and gotten your head around the initial turn in the opposite direction when reversing with a curve in the way, it’s a cinch. Looking over your shoulder can do a couple of things. One is that you can get messed up pretty quickly with your turns, flailing away at the steering wheel with too much input. Second is if the vehicle is chockers with gear you won’t see a thing out the back window. Something else that really helps with a dual-cab ute is a reversing camera. Any reversing or backing up to a tow hitch is dead easy with a camera focussed on the connection, when you don’t have the benefit of an assistant offering directions.